Sony Exec Calls Nintendo Products "Babysitting Tools"

The lawyer-neutered, ultra-conservative ritual of corporate interviews could sure use some more WWE-style smack talking, and Sony Computer Entertainment of America president and CEO Jack Tretton provided, delivering a slew of “oh no he didn’t” barbs aimed at Nintendo in an interview with Fortune.

Belittling Nintendo in the wake of the release of the 3DS handheld, Tretton — whose company aims to sequelize its PSP with a device codenamed NGP later this year — dismissed Nintendo as a purveyor of babysitting aids:

“Our view of the ‘Game Boy experience’ is that it’s a great babysitting tool, something young kids do on airplanes, but no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those. He’s too old for that.”

Tretton also said Nintendo is losing its relevance:

“They’re starting to run out of steam now in terms of continuing to be relevant in 2011 and beyond. I mean, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Why would I buy a gaming system without a hard drive in it? How does this thing scale? Motion gaming is cute, but if I can only wave my arms six inches, how does this really feel like I’m doing true accurate motion gaming?”

It’s a good thing for Tretton that Nintendo is an irrelevant manufacturer of baby toys. The company’s faults should make it easier for Sony to make up some sales ground against Nintendo, whose DS products have sold 146 million unites worldwide, trouncing the PSP’s 67 million.

PlayStation chief: Nintendo makes ‘babysitting tools’ [Fortune via Kotaku]

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